Japan Study Tour Experience

Japan study Pic 3

During the July school holidays of 2016, some students ranging from Years 9 to 12 went to Japan for 14 days.

The purpose of the trip was to learn more of the Japanese language and culture. I believe the trip accomplished all of this during the small 14 days we were there. During the trip we visited many places such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Miyajima and Kyoto.

On the 2nd of July, the plane I was catching from Sydney to Tokyo left for Japan, and I began feeling nervous yet excited for the whole trip because I had no idea what to expect. I remember not being able to sleep as I couldn’t wait to arrive in Japan, and as we got closer, I got even more restless, time flew by and before I knew it, I was in Haneda (Tokyo) airport, I remember saying thank you in Japanese to the man who stamped my passport and straight away feeling excited for the trip ahead.

As we continued out of the airport, we went on a Bus tour around Tokyo. The places we visited were Senso-ji and Harajuku, I remember feeling extremely tired, yet hyped for the whole trip. I remember speaking in Japanese whenever I had the chance and how tired I was after walking around for three hours straight around Harajuku. As we left from Harajuku to the hotel by train, I remember wanting to fall asleep yet still being too excited to.

As mentioned earlier we visited many places in the tour and had amazing days such as the first day as I mentioned earlier. The three key things that I enjoyed the most while visiting would definitely be Osaka, the host stay and the bullet trains. These are all times I definitely don’t want to forget from my tour and will continue to write about below.

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Personally my favourite part of the tour was the host stay, I was awkward at first with the host brother and mother, but as I continued to stay with the host family, I realised how fun they were as a family, it was just me being nervous that stopped me from communicating, I’m glad I did eventually get along with them I just wish I had tried a lot more earlier. The family all were very nice to me during the trip and I will definitely never forget them.

During my stay, I had three host brothers, two older and one younger, a host mother and a host father, they could all speak English okay except for the father. Halfway during my stay, the father had to leave for work, so I was unable to properly develop a bond with the father, although, I still managed to talk to him every now and then. The house they lived in was a newer type of area around 20 minutes away from school, I caught a bus to the school mainly though.

Osaka was another favourite part of the trip for me, I really loved the feel of Osaka Castle and when I was there as the atmosphere relaxed me. I enjoyed looking at the view whilst learning some history of the entire castle and watching parts of the videos on the emperor and his daily life. I enjoyed Dontobori afterwards as well because of the yummy takoyaki and the general feeling I got in Dontobori with all of the excitement around.

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I also enjoyed the bullet trains during my visit to Japan, whilst I was on the bullet train the sound of the train moving felt somewhat soothing to me, I felt very relaxed on the bullet train. Personally I also enjoyed the service that went around, I didn’t get to try the ekiben (obento) on the train, this is one thing I regret not doing.

Overall, I really enjoyed the entire trip and feel as if it was a good learning experience and one that may not come again. I enjoyed the experiences I gained during the trip as I feel like I practised my language, listening and speaking skills. I feel as if I tried a lot of things. The only thing I regret is probably worrying too much, during the trip I feel as if I was worrying too much and now I feel like I would have had a lot more of an even more educational trip if I had just not worried.

Keenan Dimacali
Year 9

Written By

St Andrew's College Marayong
www.standrewscmarayong.catholic.edu.au

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